


Traitor in the Mix

by TeamHPForever



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-10
Updated: 2014-04-10
Packaged: 2018-01-18 20:14:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1441369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeamHPForever/pseuds/TeamHPForever
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Clint returns from South America to SHIELD in an uproar, he goes to the only person he knows he can trust. Clint just isn't sure if that's true for everyone on Coulson's team.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Traitor in the Mix

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: This fic was based on the events of Winter Soldier and the Agents of SHIELD episode "Turn, Turn, Turn." There are spoilers for both. Because, seriously, where IS Clint??

Clint returns from South America to SHIELD in an uproar. Fury is presumed dead, Hydra agents in SHIELD clothing are killing loyal agents, the new helicarriers have been brought down. With Fury gone and Natasha out of touch, Clint goes to the only person he thinks he can trust.

Coulson looks the same but deep in his eyes there is a new darkness. The kind that can only be brought on by betrayal.

“Where were you?” Coulson asks him, his voice oddly broken. The two of them are in a basement, the remainder of Coulson’s team in another room.

“Brazil. I had to travel my own way back. My ride out never came. Guess it’s hard for someone to send out a helicopter when they’re all busy fighting Hydra or being Hydra.” Clint steps closer and rests his hand against his old handler’s shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

Coulson slips away from the comforting touch. “Why are you here? Why aren’t you with Natasha?”

“She’s off the grid.” Clint leans back against the wall and crosses his arms. “You’re the only one left I know I can trust.”

Coulson strangles a laugh. “It’s good to have you back, Clint.”

“What do you need me to do?” Clint glances around the tiny safe house, thinks about the fight ahead of them. This is a task for the Avengers, but Tony is still rebuilding after he wiped his slate clean. Steve is dealing with the Winter Soldier situation. Natasha is off doing whatever she believes she needs to do. Bruce is currently out of touch on sabbatical, though Tony could probably contact him if need be. The Hulk isn’t exactly the best solution to this problem anyway. And Thor, of course, is still on Asgard.

“Stay with me,” Coulson says, the words both a plea and a request. Clint nods and follows him deeper into the safe house.

Clint recognizes the rest of Coulson’s team from SHIELD files. There are Fitz and Simmons, the two scientists. They’re sitting as close to each other on the couch as possible without actually touching.

May is pressed into the corner, standing. She doesn’t say a word as he enters, barely even looks up. Clint knows the look of someone who has been beaten and it’s written all over her face.

Skye sits on a wooden chair, a laptop in her lap. Her fingers click away at the keys at speeds that are almost inhuman and the dark shadows under her eyes say she hasn’t slept in at least two days.

“Where’s Ward?” Clint asks, remembering the fifth member of Coulson’s team.

“Accompanying the Clairvoyant,” Coulson responds, voice tight. It must have been someone Coulson knew, someone he truly trusted, to break him this much. Clint would like to toss away his bow and break the Clairvoyant’s neck with his own hands.

Clint settles into an empty wooden chair, checking over the arrows in his quiver to pass the time. He knows that sooner or later they’ll all have to leave this safe house, but for now they can rest. As much as hunted people can, anyway.

***

Ward returns three days later. His face is tight but smiling. Clint knows that the Clairvoyant was once his C.O.

Clint also knows that Ward may be playing the part of the betrayed, but he has none of the darkness inside of him that Coulson carries.

“How did it go?” Skye asks him.

“He’s secure,” Ward replies, his voice easy. “He won’t be able to escape from cryo. We’ve got him.”

Skye nods but Clint can’t ignore the uneasiness. He’s never been as good at reading people as Natasha, but in this he knows that Ward shouldn’t be trusted. After everything Coulson’s been through, he doesn’t know how to tell him that Hydra might still be within his own team.

***

Clint sleeps with one hand on his bow, always drowsing and never actually dropping into a deep sleep. He keeps Ward in hearing range at all times, waking up whenever the agent gets up in the middle of the night.

Coulson is on his other side. Sometimes Clint can hear his breathing speed up and he tosses in the midst of nightmares.

Clint wants to take him into his arms, so Coulson knows he’s not alone, but that would mean turning his back on Ward. So he stays where he is and watches Ward’s every move.

***

Ward might be a traitor, but he’s a good one. He stays in the safe house with the rest of the team and never says anything out of place. Skye talks to him for hours on end, usually about nothing more interesting than her life before SHIELD or stories of their cases together.

Ward’s expression never slips and sometimes Clint can hear him laugh. The sound grates against his nerves and he takes solace in picking out the exact arrow he’ll put into Ward’s chest if he ever makes a wrong move.

***

Coulson kisses him, one day when they get a few moments alone in the upper level of the safe house’s basement. Clint kisses him back, feeling like just as big of a traitor for not warning him that Ward is trouble.

The thought only makes him kiss harder.

***

After a week, the team is forced to leave the safe house. It’s too dangerous for them to stay in one place this long. Clint has another safe house, not too far away, that SHIELD doesn’t have records of.

He doesn’t want to take Ward there, to risk Hydra finding out about his network, but he doesn’t have a choice.

Clint’s worries are unfounded. They’re less than a quarter of a mile from the old safe house when Hydra attacks. Clint shoots without mercy, pressing his back to Coulson’s. One of the scientists uses a device that sends out a violent pulse, but it’s not enough.

There are too many of them.

Clint gives up on his quiver and switches to hand-to-hand combat, using his bow as a weapon. Within minutes, he’s separated from Coulson and the fighting is too thick to see him.

He fights harder, trying to find his way back. There are black-clad bodies everywhere, some he recognizes, some he doesn’t.

Someone in the mix shouts “Hail Hydra!” and the others echo the sentiment like robots. It sends a horrified chill down Clint’s spine.

He takes one of them out with a knife to the throat, looks over the man’s head, and his heart forgets how to beat for a second.

Coulson is fighting with his back to Ward, but his fellow agent isn’t defending. Ward has a gun trained on him.

Clint doesn’t think. He reaches back for his quiver, yanks out an arrow—it doesn’t have to be the one he tapped a week ago for Ward’s death, there isn’t time for that—and shoots.

Ward isn’t even looking. The arrow punches through his eye. Clint never misses.

Coulson turns around just as Ward falls. The look of horror written all over his face is enough to break Clint’s heart, but they don’t have time to dwell on it.

It’s another ten minutes before all the Hydra agents are defeated. They lay everywhere, dead or unconscious.

Coulson has multiple cuts across his face and a bullet graze. May has been shot in the thigh, bleeding out for some time even though she never stopped fighting. Clint isn’t sure she can be saved. Fitz and Simmons are both banged up, but fine. Skye’s hands are covered in blood. Clint suspects that it might be Ward’s since she seems all right.

“He was going to shoot you,” Clint says as they gather around Ward’s body. “He was Hydra and I think it might be safe to believe that the Clairvoyant is _not_ secured.”

Coulson nods, his face as white as the puffy clouds above their heads.

“We need to get to the safe house.” Clint twines his fingers with Coulson’s and pulls him away from the bodies. They weave through Hydra agents and keep going. An unmarked car—one of Hill’s—picks them up a half-mile away and takes them within easy walking distance of the safe house. No one talks the entire time, except for the driver to let them know that May was dead on arrival to SHIELD.

Skye goes straight to the bathroom the moment they arrive. Clint goes on his customary check of the safe house, Coulson following along behind him like a lost puppy.

“I can’t believe…” Coulson trails off, voice scratchy, but he doesn’t need to finish. Clint wraps an arm around his partner’s waist and pulls him into a hug. Coulson doesn’t pull away.

“He played his part well.” Clint doesn’t tell him that he’s been suspicious since the beginning. “There was no way of knowing.”

The dark comes early that night, and soon they’re all settling down for the night. Skye stays in the living room with the glow of her laptop illuminating her face. Fitz and Simmons settle down on cots in the living room.

Coulson and Clint take the bedroom. Without Ward to watch over, Clint cuddles up to Coulson’s back and runs his fingers soothingly through his partner’s hair.

“We’re going to take back SHIELD,” Clint murmurs. “I don’t know how, but we have allies and we’ll figure something out.”

Coulson snuggles back into him. The silence covers them like a blanket. “Thanks for having my back today,” he says.

Clint runs one hand down his arm. “Always.”


End file.
